Volta
Person1815 – 1898

Otto von Bismarck

Also called: Bismarck

Minister-president of Prussia (1862–1890) and first chancellor of the German Empire (1871–1890) who unified Germany through three wars by his policy of “blood and iron”

A Prussian Junker (landed noble), he was appointed minister-president in 1862 by Wilhelm I, then locked in a dispute with parliament over the army. With his “blood and iron” speech he forced through military spending, and victories over Denmark, Austria and France unified Germany in 1871. As imperial chancellor he waged the Kulturkampf against Catholic influence and, alongside anti-socialist laws, created the world’s first social insurance system. In foreign policy he built alliances to isolate France, and he was forced out in 1890 after clashing with Wilhelm II.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

4 related events

  1. 1
    1870 – 1871Franco-Prussian War and the Founding of the German Empireleader

    Bismarck's Prussia defeated France and in 1871 proclaimed the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. France lost Alsace-Lorraine.

  2. 2
    1877 – 1878Russo-Turkish War and the Congress of Berlindiplomat

    Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire in the name of the Balkan Slavs, but at the Congress of Berlin, called because Britain and Austria objected, its southward advance was checked again.

  3. 3
    1882 – 1907Triple Alliance and Triple Ententeleader

    After Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy formed the Triple Alliance (1882), Britain, France and Russia drew together step by step into the Triple Entente (1907). The European powers split into two camps.

  4. 4
    1884 – 1885Berlin Conference and the Partition of Africaleader

    The powers met in Berlin to set the rules for dividing Africa. Within thirty years all of Africa except Ethiopia and Liberia had become European colonies.

People who appear alongside

  • Wilhelm I1797 – 1888

    King of Prussia (1861–1888) who appointed Bismarck, unified Germany and became the first German Emperor in 1871

  • Napoleon III1808 – 1873

    Louis-Napoléon, nephew of Napoleon I, elected president in 1848, who made himself emperor (1852–1870) by a coup but was captured in the Franco-Prussian War and deposed

  • Alexander II of Russia1818 – 1881

    Emperor of Russia (1855–1881) who, after defeat in the Crimean War, emancipated the serfs and pursued reform from above, but was assassinated by revolutionaries

  • Abdulhamid II1842 – 1918

    Ottoman sultan (1876–1909) who granted a constitution, soon suspended it and ruled as an autocrat for thirty years

Themes this person appears in

  • Revolutions and Nation-States1776 – 1871

    From the Declaration of Independence to the German Empire — a century in which liberalism and nationalism toppled the old order in Europe and the Americas and built nation-states

  • Imperialism and the Partition of the World1839 – 1914

    From the Tanzimat to Sarajevo — seventy-five years in which the powers carved up West Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and the peoples there answered with reform and resistance